Toddler found clinging to mother’s body

A toddler is in stable condition in Texas after she was found clinging to her drowned mother’s body in a flooded canal during Tropical Storm Harvey.

The mother was seen trying to save her 18-month-old from a flooded parking lot when they were swept away into a ditch, a Beaumont fire-rescue official said.

A police and fire-rescue team in a boat found the pair about half a mile downstream.

The mother was unresponsive and her daughter suffering from hypothermia.

Captain Brad Pennison, a spokesman for the Beaumont fire-rescue department, told the BBC that police had already despatched emergency services once the woman’s vehicle was spotted stuck in high water on a service road near Interstate 10.

A witness saw her pull into a flooded parking lot, where her car became stuck, and attempt to walk away with the child before they were overcome by a nearby overflowing drainage ditch, he said.

Two firefighters and two police officers were among those who caught the Beaumont residents just before they were about to be swept under a railway trestle.

The emergency responders began performing CPR on the daughter until a neighbour used his pick-up truck to transport them to a nearby ambulance, Mr Pennison added.

The identities of the mother and daughter are being withheld until the father, who was out of town at the time of the incident, has been notified.

Harvey, which previously reached hurricane status, has ravaged parts of the greater Houston area, sending thousands of people from their homes and leaving more than 20 people dead, according to US media reports.

Authorities and volunteers are also still battling to rescue stranded people and provide shelter for those made homeless by the rising waters.